On the track, sometime between courses, a race meeting is going on

The trouble with Ascot is coping with all the muggers and pickpockets. If you avoid getting mugged by the 2.35, the 3.10, 3.50 and 4.25 lie in wait bearing cudgels.

Avoid them and a horse you thought you knew well and would trust with your life will tip-hoof up to you and gently remove the contents of your wallet.

Life is tough for the betting man - Jeffrey Bernard once observed: "In most betting shops you will see three windows marked 'Bet Here' but only one window with the legend 'Pay Out'."

But at least those who have a flutter tend to watch the racing and at Royal Ascot, the most genteel as well as the grandest of racecourses, that makes him something of a rarity.

And those who do watch often do so with a reverential hush, as if Tiger Woods is putting for a major on the 18th. Ascot is brimful of people who, rather like Victorian children were told, are seen but never heard. The Flat can never match the jumps for noise, for throwing hats in the air and stamping on torn up betting slips - although Goodwood has its moments.

On Wednesday, horses as popular as Ouija Board and Soviet Song romped home with little more than a murmur of appreciation from the crowd, although there were signs yesterday that at least some of them were beginning to find their voices in time for the Gold Cup.

But even more noticeable than the quietness of those who watched was the number of people who didn't watch at all; perhaps they were too intent on being watched themselves.

Ascot, of course, is part of the summer's social season. Anyone who has been to the stewards' enclosure at the Henley Regatta knows that it is quite possible to while away an entire afternoon without knowing there is any rowing going on. Croquet and polo can be similarly ignored.

But this is Ascot, for goodness sake, a great sporting occasion with plenty of top quality racing to enjoy. If you can be bothered.

"People here don't worry about the racing because they're far too busy having a good time," said a waiter at Goldings bar in the Royal Enclosure.

In the Cocktail Bar - which worryingly did not accept credit cards, even though a bottle of Bollinger vintage cost £81 - the sound of horses hooves could have been distant drums for all the customers knew.

"Some watch the racing - honest," protested a waitress at the Champagne and Seafood Bar. In the plush surroundings of the Terrace Restaurant, the diners seemed more interested in wineglasses than Gold Cups.

Amanda Bond-Elliott, who was there with her daughter, Victoria, was an exception . "I think it's a great shame that so many people don't watch the racing," she said. "But there are so many TVs around that a lot of people watch it without moving from their seats."

In one of the corporate boxes, chartered surveyor Simon Houlston, from Yorkshire, was definitely watching the racing. "The view is so fantastic up here that you have to watch," he said. In another box Karen Donald also insisted she was watching. But looking from her box into others it was clear that some of the best views at Ascot were not being used as the corporately-entertained concentrated their attention on the contents of green bottles which were most definitely not hanging on the wall.

The irony seems to be that the further away you go and the worse the facilities are, the more attention people pay. Away from the toffs, in the Silver Ring (£22) Jenna Emslie was celebrating her 21st birthday with her mother, Gaynor.

"Of course I've watched the racing," said Jenna. "But I was disappointed that they popped my helium balloon when we came in. They thought it might frighten the horses." Gaynor added: "We would have watched more racing if the toilets weren't so far away."

Jackie and her friends, Anna and Jo, were also in the Silver Ring, which looks like a mother-of-the-bride fancy dress party. They said they were definitely there for the racing. "But we might have got here earlier if our high heels hadn't got caught in the stones on the approach. It's like Brighton beach."

In the Grandstand (£60), Sue Harris and her friends had their heads buried in Timeform and the racing pages of various newspapers. "It's much improved and I wouldn't miss a race for anything," she said. It was a pity more people didn't feel the same.